Cactus Diet

The Cactus Diet is based on the the hoodia cactus or "hoodia gordonii" (pronounced as HOO-dee-ah). It is also called by several names such as xhooba, khoba, Ghaap and the South African desert cactus.

Hoodia is a cactus that’s advertised to take away the appetite of someone and essentially to promote weight loss. Hoodia has already been sold and marketed in capsule, tea or liquid form in several food stores. The television and the Internet have already capitalized on it.

It can be found in the areas of Angola, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. The plant grows in big clumps of green stems which stand up. The plant takes around a maximum of 5 years before the hoodia’s purplish flowers appear on the cactus. This is the time that it can be harvested. Even though there are 20 types of hoodia, only the one which is of the hoodia gordonii variety is believed to have the natural appetite suppressant.

The hoodia had only recently become a commercial appetite suppressant however the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert have been taking it for a long time to fend off hunger and thirst during their nomadic trips so the natural effects of the cactus plant has always been in use even before its discovery.

It seems that there isn’t that much published material on hoodia. Brown University researchers have discovered that the steroidal glycosides in the plant affect the nerve cells in the hypothalamus that monitors blood glucose.

What it does is it tricks the brain into thinking that there is enough blood sugar in the body so there is no need to eat. Because of this, it effectively shuts down the hunger mechanism which keeps you from wanting to eat something.

Like most diet pills and herbal supplements that are out there in the market, the newer products have continuous hype and the promises just stockpile on and on. There are only few scientific evidence that prove this herbal supplement is able to help you lose weight.

It is only fitting that this will be given a skeptic’s glance as Pfizer essentially walked away from something which could have been so potentially lucrative. For now, a truly effective appetite suppressant without any side effects is still unavailable to the public because hoodia has not yet answered that call. Only exercise and diet remain the only miracle cure for long term weight loss.

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on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lifestyle Diets.
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